A 2nd generation, user-friendly version of this code is currently in development.
This C++ library has been used to simulate fluid transport in microvascular tissue here. Vascular networks are imported as weighted, undirected graphs which represent a network(s) of blood vessels generated either synthetically or by segmenting and skeletonising biomedical images.
This microvascular flow solver is the 1st generation version of the code which forms the basis of the REANIMATE (Realistic Numerical Image-based Modelling of Biological Tissue Substrates) framework published here and corresponding mathematical methods here.
The flow solver implements several mathematical models in research literature including:
- Poiseuille's Law for steady-state,axisymmetric, laminar pipe flow in 1D networks with known boundary conditions.
- Empirical blood viscosity laws to compute bulk blood viscosity as a function of vessel diameter and haematocrit, thereby capturing the Fåhraeus-Lindqvist effect.
- Empirical phase separation law to calculate the disproportion distribution of haematocrit at microvascular bifurcations.
- Blood flow estimation model to simulate blood flow in a microvascular network with incomplete boundary conditions.
- Interstitial flow model which uses a Green's function method to simulate transvascular fluid transport.
If you wish to cite the published articles where this software has been used, please use the following references:
Computational fluid dynamics with imaging of cleared tissue and of in vivo perfusion predicts drug uptake and treatment responses in tumours
Angela d'Esposito & Paul W. Sweeney et al.
Modelling the transport of fluid through heterogeneous, whole tumours in silico
Paul W. Sweeney et al.
If you wish to cite the software directly in your work, please use the following reference:
Vascular and interstitial flow solver for discrete microvascular networks
Paul W. Sweeney, Simon Walker-Samuel & Rebecca J. Shipley.
This software is compatible with C++11, and has been tested on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and macOS Big Sur. Other distributions of Linux and Windows should work as well.
To install the scripts from source, download zip file on GitHub page or run the following in a terminal:
git clone https://github.com/psweens/VF_NatureBioEng.gitThis C++ library is an open-source project started by Dr Paul Sweeney during his PhD at University College London under the supervision of Prof. Rebecca Shipley and Prof. Simon Walker-Samuel.
This Github repository is not maintained. However, a 2nd generation, user-friendly version of this code is currently in development. Please contact me directly for further details.
I would like to acknowledge that this C++ library utilises several portions of code originally written by Prof. Timothy Secomb but amended to allow integration of the Armadillo C++ library.